by Linda Hawley
“Hello, Ann,” Edwin greeted me.
“Hi, Edwin. We better get Lulu over before she starts to bark,” I warned him.
“Of course,” he said in haste.
Chow was able to pass Lulu over to Edwin without dropping her, which was a challenging feat. Once she was by my side, she sat down, satisfied. Edwin smiled at her. I took her down into the cabin. After looking in my bag, I found what I was looking for and removed the envelope.
As I emerged from the cabin, Chow and Edwin stood close together, talking in Korean in low tones. Standing there, I waited for them to finish, shocked that they both knew how to speak Korean so well. I’ll have to ask Chow about that later. When they finished, Edwin turned to me with a look I had never seen on his face, and he bowed to me for the second time in my life.
“I told him about The Prophecies, and your role,” Chow said to me.
I didn’t know what to say, so I returned Edwin’s bow, then handed him the envelope with both my hands. As I stepped closer to him, I could see his respect toward me reflected in his face.
“It has been my honor to help watch over you until now,” Edwin said to me.
I shook his hand. “Edwin, thank you for everything you’ve done,” I said sincerely, looking into his eyes. Pointing to the envelope, I explained, “Inside is a bill of sale and the title for Woohoo, signed over to you. It’s pre-dated two weeks ago. If you’re boarded by the U.S. Coast Guard, you can show them the papers, which shows that you’re the legal owner.”
Edwin nodded.
“Make sure to sail down to Anacortes Marina, instead of Squalicum Harbor,” Chow added.
“Thank you,” Edwin said to me.
“And Edwin?” I added.
“Yes?”
“Take good care of her. She holds precious memories,” I said sentimentally.
“I will, Ann. I will.”
Edwin faced Chow. “Annyong,” he said in Korean, bowing to Chow.
Chow returned the farewell of peace with feeling.
As I started up the Canadian Ranger’s engine, Chow untied us from the Woohoo. I couldn’t help but tear up at the loss of her. Armond and I had retrofitted the Woohoo and given her a new birth, storing away many happy memories on the sailboat. As I watched her slip away, the memory of Armond’s smell in our double sleeping bag also fell away. It seemed that I was losing the very essence of my soul mate.
Chapter 25
CANADA
The Year 2015
We motored away from the west side of Patos, entering boundary passage in winds ranging from ten to twenty knots and a three-foot chop. We could hear porpoises accompanying us, racing alongside our bow. Our destination was only five nautical miles away in Narvaez Bay, on the southeast of Saturna Island, in the Canadian Southern Gulf Islands.
Crossing into Canadian waters without any other vessels on our radar was a surprise and a relief, as we continued motoring in the dark of the very early morning. We made the crossing in just over an hour without any difficulty, and navigated into the bay. The inlet was dark and peaceful, without any other vessels anchored. To avoid being exposed to a southeasterly wind, rough sea, and passing ship disturbances, we decided to drop anchor along the shore in twelve meters of water. There was no mooring buoy, dock, or any other signs of human disturbances in the isolated bay.
Not long after we anchored and got everything settled, dawn broke.
After finding some scones in the sailboat’s galley, along with herbal tea, I came up top along with Lulu’s breakfast. We sat in the cockpit on opposite benches, watching the sun wakeup. I could see that he was tired; he hadn’t slept all night.
“Oh, Ann,” he suddenly exclaimed, looking at me hard.
“What?” I answered him immediately.
He sat down next to me and gestured to my throat. “Does it hurt?”
I guess he hadn’t seen it before now, since we had been travelling in the dark.
“Yes. It hurts.”
“I wished that I had been there; I could have prevented it,” he said solemnly.
“You can’t save me from everything, Chow. Joe did his best; it just happened. At least Joe and Lulu got him off me in time.”
Chow reached down and petted Lulu. “Good dog,” he said to her kindly.
We sat there, side by side in silence after that, watching the gulls search for their breakfast as they skimmed the smooth mirrored water. The rising sun revealed the small bay, with the shoreline heavily forested with Douglas fir. Clinging to the shore were wind-shaped trees at odd angles.
“A bald eagle,” Chow called out, spotting one.
“Beautiful,” I remarked, seeing the majestic beauty.
We continued sitting, watching nature awaken.
“How is it that both you and Edwin speak fluent Korean?”
“It is our home land.”
“I thought you were Chinese.”
“A fabrication woven by GOG. We were born in Korea. Both our parents are physicians there. When my parents became GOG members, Edwin and I were nearly teenagers…”
“You were both almost teenagers?” I said, interjecting. “Who’s the eldest?”
“He brags that he is,” Chow said with feigned disgust, then shook his head.
I laughed, the realization suddenly hitting me. “You’re twins?”
“Yes,” he said simply, with a nod of his head.
I laughed again. “Wow…fraternal twins. I would have never guessed,” I said, astonished. “So your parents became members…then what?”
“We were shipped to Shanghai to live with family there, learned several Chinese dialects, English, French, and Spanish, and we learned to meld into the Shanghai culture, so we could function as GOG operatives,” he said, matter of fact.
I was regularly surprised by Chow’s understated nature. “When did you go to work for the CSIS?”
“After University.”
“Did you know you’d be paranormally trained in astral projection?”
“Much like the CIA, the CSIS doesn’t tell you anything about your project before you show up to start work.”
“No kidding,” I agreed.
Interrupting us was the sound of a plane. We both looked overhead.
“Just as expected,” Chow announced, looking at his watch.
We saw the floatplane line up for entrance into the bay. Because of its narrowness, we could see it would be tricky. The pilot landed expertly just before the mouth of the inlet, giving himself enough room to slow down. It was exhilarating to watch.
“Let’s get everything into the dingy and meet the plane,” he said.
After putting Lulu’s life jacket on, I got into the dingy, and Chow passed her to me, followed by the luggage. He then joined us. We motored over to the seaplane, which had settled a hundred feet from our bow.
Two men who were new to me, but whom Chow seemed to know, met us. One of them took Lulu, then me, then the bags into the seaplane. Chow joined us while the other man boarded the dinghy and returned to the sailboat. As the seaplane started moving, I could see the man out the window, pulling anchor on the Ranger.
I made sure Lulu was right next to me as we started to gain speed, heading out of the pristine bay. When the speed increased, I could see foamy white water from the pontoons. As we neared the bay’s entrance, we were suddenly airborne. The pilot banked to the East, heading for Vancouver; I held on tight to Lulu.
Chow asked the pilot, “Any contact?”
“Negative. It looks like you’re in the clear.”
I breathed a sigh of relief. We were going to make it safely onto Canadian soil. It had turned into a cloudy morning, and we couldn’t see the islands. The pilot was flying on his instruments to navigate.
“We’ll be landing in Vancouver Harbor, and then we’ll deplane at the Canada Place dock,” the pilot informed us.
I chuckled. “Now that’s ironic,” I said, looking over at Chow.
“My apartment is in Gastown. It is right ne
xt to Portside Park, where we met in Canada,” he said, then paused. “We will be there for a few days before flying out, while I get all our papers together. It is safe there.”
We descended through the fog, just before landing smoothly in the harbor, with Lulu giving a little bark as we did so. After taxing to the dock, we quickly moored to the same dock that led from Canada Place to the Pan Pacific hotel. The pilot had us deplane quickly, and I leashed Lulu.
After catching a taxi in front of the Pan Pacific, we arrived at Chow’s apartment a mere five minutes later. As I stepped out of the taxi, I saw that Chow lived in a skyscraper made of glass. Looking up, the top of the building wasn’t even visible—it was hidden in the fog.
A doorman approached us, taking my bags from the car. I followed Chow inside with Lulu by my side. The skyscraper’s foyer mimicked the outside, with a ceiling that must have extended two stories. There were glass and steel surfaces everywhere; even the bellman’s stand was made of glass. It smelled of floor polish, chemical and slightly overpowering my olfactory.
“You live in a glass house,” I said to Chow.
He chuckled as the bellman loaded up his cart with my bags, moving it to the elevator bank and pushing the call button.
“I can take it from here,” Chow said to the bellman, handing him a bill.
“Yes, sir,” the bellman replied, leaving the cart to Chow.
The elevator arrived, Lulu and I entered, then Chow pushed the cart forward and pressed the button.
“It was you,” I said to him suddenly.
“What?” he asked, with his eyebrows extended.
“In the elevator at the Pan Pacific…that was you I saw get out as I was getting on with Paul.”
“Yes, it was,” he nodded in confirmation.
“I can’t believe it. I turned to get a better look at you, but I only saw your back.”
He smiled at me as the elevator voice spoke. “You’ve arrived at the penthouse.”
“Ooh, the penthouse,” I said, teasing as I got out. “Wait a minute…” I said, stopping to look directly at him, “…you don’t live in a chick-magnet apartment, do you?”
Chow laughed right out loud, saying, “No,” which satisfied me greatly.
A biometric retinal scanner was installed beside his apartment’s front door, at eye level. He leaned into it, stood still for a few seconds, and the front door opened to a regal entrance hall, about fifteen feet wide.
“Good morning,” the female voice with a French accent spoke.
I looked at Chow quizzically.
“You had Sinéad, and I have Juliette Binoche,” Chow said very seriously, answering my unspoken question.
I laughed. “You have a crush on her,” I said, slapping him playfully on the arm.
Chow was silent, simply watching me standing in the entrance hall to his apartment. “What if I do?” he asked with all seriousness.
I laughed even harder.
“Ann, you sound like a hyena.”
“I do not,” I said, defending myself while I wiped my eyes. “So you have a real crush. Well Chow, at least she’s a fantastic actress.”
He did finally smile. “May I show you my home now?” he asked, slight irritation creeping into his voice.
“Yes,” I replied, trying to keep a straight face.
Juliette lit the way as we walked down what must have been a fifty-foot-long entry hall. I could see that beyond the hall was a view of something, but the alcoves recessed within the walls distracted me; they were filled with trinkets and art from around the world.
“These are beautiful,” I said reverently, as I stopped in front of one alcove.
“I wanted to remember all the places that were special to me,” he softly replied, standing by my side, looking at the two-foot-tall lion sculpted in brass.
I knew he was sentimental, I thought.
As we neared the end of the hall, my breath caught within my throat. “Wow.”
Before me was a wall of windows, floor-to-ceiling, running what I guessed was the entire length of the apartment, which must have been a hundred feet. Outside the windows was shadowed silence, because we were literally so high that we were in the fog.
“Normally there is a perfect view of the Vancouver Harbor and the Coastal Mountain Range,” he said, disappointed as he looked out the window and into the white fluff.
He reached down, unleashing Lulu. “She can just run around in here.”
Lulu quickly disappeared, sniffing out everything, starting with the floors.
The entire floor space was covered with white marble, with black veins running through it. The living room, facing the view, contained two contemporary black leather couches facing one another. The floor between them was covered in a geometrically woven rug, in black and white. The lamps on both ends of the couches had black and white checkered shades with deep purple lamp bases. Track lighting lit the art on the walls. There was no dining room table—in its place was a high-tech office that looked like you could run a large corporation from it. The kitchen seemed state of the art—filled with stainless steel and chrome, with the same marble on the counters and bar that were on the floor. Everything was in its place, and there was not a speck of dust anywhere.
“It’s very chic,” I said sincerely.
“Thank you. May I show you the rest?”
“Yes.”
He first showed me the second bedroom.
“This is where you’ll be staying,” he began. “I hope it’s comfortable for you.”
“It’s wonderful, Chow.” It was a simple room, with a queen-sized black leather platform bed with two black nightstands, facing the extension of the picture windows from the living room, with a closet that ran the length of the room. Two deep purple lamps flanked the bed.
Chow deposited my bags in the room as Lulu sniffed around. He opened the door to a connected bathroom. Everywhere except the ceiling was white marble.
I guess he likes marble.
His room and bathroom were a mirror image of mine. After the brief tour, he ushered me into a small storage room.
“One other thing…” he began, as we stood facing one another.
“You want to show me your high school photo album?” I joked, seeing all the boxes stacked up.
He looked at me dumfounded, then pulled aside a wall panel, revealing a very large safe, with another biometric retinal scanner attached. “I don’t have a photo from high school,” he said seriously. “But I do have a wall safe to store your cash in.”
I smiled. “That’s good; I didn’t wanna bring all my cash to Europe. I’m pretty sure the airlines would lose my luggage,” I said, winking at him.
He answered with a smile. “You don’t need to bring any cash to Europe; everything will be taken care of.”
“Europe’s on you?” I asked, feigning excitement.
He chuckled, ignoring my question. “I’ll code the safe for access by only you or me. Can you stand up close to it for the scan?”
I moved my eyeball up to the scanner and held still. Then Chow did the same.
“It is now coded for us. If my chip ceases, then Juliette will activate the override.”
“Two questions. What chip? And what’s the override?”
“I had myself chipped. Only Juliette knows my chip encoding. If my heart ceases, then the chip will stop communicating with Juliette…”
“You have a chip implant that communicates with your SmartWired home computer?” I said, astonished, with my mouth slightly open.
“Yes,” he answered, matter of fact.
“Why?” I asked out of sheer curiosity.
After a moment, Chow replied solemnly, “So I don’t simply disappear.”
“What?” I asked, bewildered.
“I’ve lived a life dedicated to our cause. I have no posterity. If I die fighting, I want to be remembered by those whom I fought beside—like you,” he said, looking intently into my eyes. “If Juliette uses the override, then she will noti
fy my brother and parents about my death, so that they will remember me as I move on to the next life.”
My vision clouded, and I blinked, hard. I reached out and folded him into a rough embrace. He quickly returned it and hugged me hard.
“I won’t forget you,” I whispered in his ear, touched to the heart by Chow’s confession.
After a moment, I untangled myself and sniffed. He just stared at me, looking into my eyes. It was the first time we’d embraced. I could see he was considering something.
He spoke softly, “If I die, I want you to consider this your home.”
“I couldn’t…”
He put his hand on my arm, interrupting me, peering into my eyes. “If I die, Ann, I won’t need it anymore, and you need a home now.”
Realizing suddenly that I was indeed homeless, I reflected on his offer. “I would stay only until I could find a new home.”
“You’re not comfortable here?” he said flatly, more of a statement than a question.
“No…I love your home…I really do. It’s just that I think its right that Edwin and your parents benefit from it, or from the sale of it.”
Chow heartily laughed out loud. “My brother and I have been greatly blessed and have passed our good fortune on to our parents and even our Shanghai family. It would take a lifetime to spend the money that we have made in our worldwide investments.” He smiled. “Did you not see my home office adjacent to the living room?” he asked me.
“Yes. It looks like you can run a country from there.”
Chow laughed. “Take my home if I die, Ann, and consider it yours,” he tried to persuade me as he smiled, looking at me.
“Well…I did give your brother my sailboat…” I reasoned.
He laughed out loud again. “Yes, you did…an even trade,” he said seriously, then winked at me.
“Okay, okay. But do you know how morbid this conversation is?”
“It does seem like it. Let it be done then. I will reprogram Juliette so that you will have full access, as well as me. If my chip does not respond, then you will be the owner.”